


I Fly and Then I Fall (Every Time You Call)

by overratedantihero



Series: Strange is the Call of This Strange Man [13]
Category: Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Age Difference, Age Inappropriate Relationship, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Non Explicit Sex, Underage Intoxication, we’re Still doing the persephone metaphor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 17:47:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14407269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overratedantihero/pseuds/overratedantihero
Summary: Dick makes a decision. The seasons pass.





	I Fly and Then I Fall (Every Time You Call)

The first time Dick sought Slade for his company, Dick had led the Titans into a fire fight. Between Wondergirl and Starfire, the team retreated largely unscathed. But there were other casualties, civilian casualties, and Dick (Robin at the time, just shy of 20 years old) intercepted Slade on a rooftop in New Orleans.

Slade was laid out on the ground, staking out a target, and Dick landed so roughly onto the concrete that he’d had to roll before standing. When Dick stood again, it was on unsteady feet. Slade kept his post. He was a professional after all.

“Contract,” Dick mumbled hoarsely, as if he’d been crying. “You have a contract to kill me, don’t you?”

Slade raised his eyebrows but didn’t look away from rifle sight. The target was striding down towards the French Quarter mid-summer. Slade would have to wait to kill him until tonight, when the man drunkenly returned to his hotel. Slade set aside his rifle, stood, and gave Dick his full attention.

“No, not presently,” Slade murmured. “Not an active one. There are several who’d pay if I offered them your corpse, but I’m not a bounty hunter. I prefer to negotiate my terms.”

Dick swayed on his feet for a moment before lunging at Slade. Even without Slade’s enhancements, Dick’s flailing was easy to side step and dodge. There was no finesse, no choreography. Dick wasn’t fighting like himself, he wasn’t fighting like Robin, and he certainly wasn’t fighting competently. Slade grabbed both of Dick’s wrists and pulled him close enough to smell liquor on his breath.

“You’re drunk, kid,” Slade growled. “Go home before you get yourself killed.”

As if the thin cord holding Dick upright snapped, Dick went boneless, his head falling forward. He would have sunk to the ground if not for Slade’s grip on his wrists. Slade assumed he’d passed out and was about to drop him, but then he caught the fat tears drops from where they fell from Dick’s face and darkened the concrete.

“Kid, are you crying?”

“‘S my fault,” Dick muttered wetly. “I can’t- I can’t go back and face him. I let people die. If I hadn’t- they wouldn’t- I did it, I killed them, I-“

Slade closed his eyes while Dick babbled. Then, he grit his teeth, opened his eyes, and hauled Dick to his feet. Slade released Dick’s wrists to wrap his fingers around Dick’s throat, using his other hand to force Dick’s chin up. Dick’s feet scrambled for purchase for only a moment before he was standing again, mouth parted in shock, hands flying to tug at Slade’s hand around his neck.

“Feel that? Didn’t really want to die, did you?” Slade growled, close enough to Dick’s face to notice the minute movement of Dick’s lenses as Dick’s eyes widened.

“I- I didn’t-“ Dick gasped around the pressure on his throat. Slade tightened his grip.

“You did,” Slade assured him. “You sought me out to satisfy your guilt ridden death wish. But I’ve gotta secret for you, kid. I kill for pay or pleasure. There’s nothing you can offer me. You feel guilty? I don’t care.”

Slade released Dick. He fully expected Dick to fall to the ground, gasping and clawing at his throat. Instead, Dick lunged at him, the intent back in his step. Slade cursed and lifted his hands to block Dick, but Dick wrapped his arms around Slade’s neck and pressed their mouths together with all of the charm of the teenager that he was.

Slade reared his head back, “Robin, what are you doing?”

Dick looked up at him, mask loosened by his tears and a little crooked, slick bottom lip still trembling, face dusted pink from a blush or being choked, Slade wasn’t sure which.

“Kissing you. Thought you said you didn’t care.”

Slade couldn’t argue with that logic.

He didn’t take Dick to his hotel room, but he did take Dick to a hotel room by way of window. By the time Slade was pushing Dick onto a bed, Dick had sobered up. Slade paused, waiting for Dick to come back into himself, to say no. Slade couldn’t see his eyes, but he saw the control return to Dick’s stance, to his movements. Robin was too conditioned to let something so salacious take place.

But Dick bit his lip and tugged Slade down on top of himself and Slade knew he was being used, that Dick was layering his guilt and lashing out in youthful rebellion against the man he feared he couldn’t face. Slade knew that Dick craved Slade’s apathy for his actions and that the craving would pass, leading Dick into a spiral.

None of these things stopped Slade from taking Dick among tangled, floral hotel sheets.

* * *

Dick woke slowly, with sore lungs and a leadened heart. His face still felt sticky and he groaned, rubbing it against the nearest surface. Warm skin pressed against his cheek, and short hair tickled his nose, causing him to sneeze. Dick pried his eyes opened and blinked at the sliver curls. The smell of wood, cologne, and gun oil soothed Dick, and Dick nuzzled the chest. Slade.

The body underneath Dick shifted, and a hand pressed between Dick’s shoulder blades. A nagging upset tugged at Dick, but Dick often felt unsettled around Slade. It was their history and Bruce’s distaste and Slade’s career choices. But... wasn’t Dick in a hospital?

Slade shifted again, and he rumbled, “Are you comfortable, pretty bird?”

In a hospital, with Damian curled against him.

“Damian?” Dick rasped. He tilted his head up to catch Slade’s face, but sharp pain cut the movement short. His throat throbbed and memories of the past several days gushed back into focus.

“Settle down. You’re safe,” Slade murmured.

“What.. what did you do, Slade?” Dick asked, knowing exactly what he’d done. Slade didn’t say anything, so Dick pressed, “Why? That’s- so much death. You told me once. No pay, no pleasure. So why?” Dick gave up on lifting himself and settled with tucking his head underneath Slade’s chin.

“They harmed you. They’d keep harming you. It was a pleasure. I’d do it again.”

Dick let out a shaky breath, pressed his lips against Slade’s skin. Slade traced shapes into Dick’s back with his fingertips.

”I didn’t want this,” Dick whispered.

”I know,” Slade murmured. “But they touched you.”

”I don’t kill,” Dick insisted. 

“I’ve never known you to,” Slade agreed. 

“There’s blood on hands,” Dick said. “My skin is stained and I have no one else to blame but myself.”

”You descended, little bird. You’ll return to the surface.”

“I’ll need to go to Diana,” Dick murmured, almost to himself. “Supplicate myself. Request ritual cleansing. Then I can go to Bludhaven, can salvage whatever’s left in that power vacuum. And then... then I need to go home. I need to see Bruce.” 

There was a moment of quiet, and then Slade murmured, “Winter passed quickly.”

Dick crawled up Slade’s body and lifted himself up on his arms to look down at Slade. “You can’t do that, Slade. You can’t kill for me.”

Slade rested his hand on Dick’s lower back. “We’ll see, next fall.”

Despite himself, Dick snorted. “You really think I’ll return to your side? After all of this?”

Slade tilted his head. “You ate the pomegranate. Of course you will.”

Jason arrived and absconded with Dick, not an hour later. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Jason is Hermes! Get it! 
> 
> I feel like this is a bit anticlimactic for an ending, but I wanted to leave the implication that this is a continuous cycle. Dick falls into his bed, they have a whirlwind romance, Slade does something that is Very Slade, Dick flits back into the light. I may still write pieces for this general timeline/dynamic/series but I think that’s all for cohesive plot. I hope y’all enjoyed!


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